Wandering Albatross Press

How to Doodle a Bat

Bats are little flying creatures that can inspire fear or pride or any natural human emotion in between, and humans have wanted to draw them ever since the first bat was spotted by the first human eye; you’re not alone in wondering how to doodle a bat. But like that early hominid so many millennia ago, you may feel like a beginner in the evolutionary chain at doodling. That’s okay! We are here to give you some reassuring tips on how to doodle a bat.

On this page you will find:

What are the parts of a bat?

Bats can be hard to observe out in nature. They sleep when we’re awake and are awake when we’re asleep, and when they do come out they move fast and in the air, whereas we are mostly sedentary ground animals. That said, philosophers and doodlers through the years have come up with a list of essential qualities of bats; we are happy to share them with you in order to help you learn how to doodle a bat.

Pointy Wings

Unlike a bird or a manta ray, a bat has very noticeable pointy parts on its wings. You may find as you practice doodling a bat that you might add more points or less points, even throw in some curvy parts, but you need at least a point or two to really make a convincing bat.

Pointy Ears

While a number of bats out in the real world (at least as real as we can assume with our limited and ultimately local knowledge of the universe) have round little ears or even ears so small you can’t see ’em, a doodle of a bat will almost always feature some pointy ears on top of the bat head.

Pointy Teeth (Optional)

Many bats are sweet and harmless and mind their own business without getting into the “intentional scare” hobby, and you may want to doodle a friendly bat, in which case you can just give your bat doodle a little mouth or no mouth at all. However, if you want to doodle a bat that’s got a little bit more edge to it, give it pointy teeth.

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Step-by-step instructions on how to doodle a bat

  1. Draw the pointy wings
  2. Draw the body and the head
  3. Add pointy ears to the head
  4. Add pointy teeth (optional)

That’s it! You’re doing a great job, and you really know your bats.

How to doodle other things

Wandering Albatross Press provides many resources for doodling and drawing, including our free printable activity sheets, and our definitive book with theory and guidance on How to Doodle.

Do bats feel complex emotions like ennui?

We’re not sure!

Other step-by-step doodle guides

If you enjoyed practicing how to doodle a bat, you might also like some other guides on how to doodle things for beginners.